Source: Yahoo News India
September 22, 2008

There is good news and bad news. While retrenchment is giving people in financial and banking institutions across the US sleepless nights, Indian companies are still sailing smoothly in these turbulent times despite sectors like information technology and, other outsourced businesses feeling the heat of the US crisis.

In fact, human resource (HR) consultants are unanimous that talented people who may face the pink slip in these sectors, will be able to find another job within months. However, with non-existent social security a lot depends on an individual's the severance package (a lumpsum paid by the company to a person who is laid off), his or her savings and how fast he or she can land another job post lay-off.

"There is no fixed severance formula in India," said E Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Management Consultants. "It depends on a company and what your offer letter says.

At the best it could be a one-month to three-month notice period." Ranjeet Mudholkar, certified financial planner with FPSB advised cautious use of the severance amount, and warned against investing it in equity.

"It is also not a good option to mortgage securities to generate money without a regular income in hand," he said. For those who want to learn from the crisis, Mudholkar suggested saving five to six times the monthly household expenses, including the EMI outgo, in fixed deposits or similar saving schemes.

"Thirty five per cent is the ideal level of EMI with relation to the salary," he said, "Also, have a word with your banker if an EMI waiver is possible. One can have EMI holiday between 1-6 months when faced with a job loss situation.

" While developing multi-skills would be a long-term option to hedge against job loss, it is best to get the resume in place, contact former colleagues and bosses and tell them you are looking for a job change and contact good recruitment agencies as a short-term measure. "Vacancy-wise, India has deeper pockets.

Indian companies are creating jobs and employing people," said Sanjay Teli, managing director of ESP Consultants, an HR consultancy firm. General skills and functions like human resources, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, administrations, IT support, customer support services, etc.

available among the affected sectors are equally suitable for other sectors. "Telecom, media, educations and services, public utilities, energy and gas are still witnessing huge growth," said James Agrawal, consulting director and head of BTI Consultants.

"As per a recent estimate, these sectors are still growing over 20 per cent year-on-year." While every one seems to have written off the outsourcing sector, Balaji said that with West facing the challenge, there is a severe need for them to cut cost and the obvious location for low cost, high quality labour is India.

Teli too predicted that headhunters would swipe out all the joblessness in the market in the next three months.